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Drought, early frost create dissapointing season for local cotton farmers

Eric Curl

Compacted cotton modules recently lined Ga. 17 south of Guyton. The modules weigh about 20,000 pounds, 60 percent of which is comprised of seeds and leaves.

Eric Curl

Effingham County farmers produced about 550 pounds of de-seeded cotton per acre in 2006. The county typically has about 3,000 to 4,000 acres of cotton fields.

Eric Curl

Tightly compacted cotton modules recently lined Ga. 17 south of Guyton. The modules typically way about 20,000 pounds, of which about 60 percent is comprised of seeds and leaves.

RINCON - It was a disappointing season for cotton in Georgia and Effingham County last year, according to farmers and agriculture officials.

And fashion advocates' taste for all things synthetic wasn't to blame.

Weather - not polyester - was the culprit here.

A summer drought and early fall frost kept cotton yields down, said Bill Tyson, Effingham County agent for the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to help keep farmers informed of the latest agricultural technology, research and marketing strategies.

Effingham County produced on average about 550 pounds of de-seeded cotton per acre in 2006, down from about 750 pounds per acre in 2005, Tyson said.

He said there is usually between 3,000 to 4,000 acres of cotton planted in the county.

But some late rain provided some last-minute relief, Tyson said.

That late rain kept some farmers picking cotton into last week, he said, when the growing season typically doesn't continue past November.

Only about a dozen local farmers grew cotton in Effingham County this season, he said, and stated that there are about 75 local farmers in all.

Cotton usually takes a back seat to corn and soybeans, which make up a majority of the crops grown in the county.

Most of the cotton harvested in Effingham gets sent to Bulloch County to be ginned, Tyson said.

The market value for cotton in December was 58 cents per pound, which is low, Tyson said. He said it is a tough time for cotton because low yields, combined with dried conditions and competition with other countries such as China, one of the leading cotton producing countries, are hurting the industry.

Cotton seed is mainly used for cattle feed, Tyson said. Farmers usually don't see any income from the seeds, however, as it is usually used as payment for the ginning, he said.

Effingham County is a minor player compared to the leading state cotton producers.

Dooly County was the top cotton producing county in Georgia in 2005, producing 133,000 bales, according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Effingham produced 4,500 bales that year.

There were more than 3,000 farmers in Georgia in 2006, and they planted about 1.4 million acres of cotton, said Karen Nikitopoulos, communications program manager for the Perry-based Georgia Cotton Commission..

The state is second only to Texas - which usually has around 6 million acres - in the amount of cotton fields, Nikitopoulos said.

Effingham County farmer Larry Redmond has been farming for 20 years, cotton for 14 of them. Redmond said cotton was becoming a commodity when he started raising it in the early nineties.

But this was a disappointing season. He grew about 1,200 acres, but the amount produced was low compared to previous seasons, he said.

Redmond said he ended up with about 65 modules of cotton this past season, down from the 120 he normally produces.

Modules are trailer-sized blocks of tightly packed cotton and seeds that typically weigh about 20,000 pounds.

About 40 percent of that module is cotton, with the rest being made up things such as leaves and seeds.

But Redmond grows other crops besides cotton. He also grows soybeans and peanuts, and the cotton helps him rotate those crops. His most lucrative crop is Bahia grass seed for pastures, he said. The year wasn't bad for those other crops.

"The drought hurt the cotton more than anything," Redmond said. "Everything else was good."

About Georgia cotton:

In 2005, cotton retained its position as one of the leading cash row crops in Georgia with a yield of 2.140 million bales of cotton and an estimated market value of over $504,355 million.